1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to kitchen appliances, such as mixers-beaters, comprising a housing having on its upper portion a seat for the reception and enclosure of an electric motor unit whose output shaft projects into the seat, a removable bowl having a removable bottom comprising a base having a sidewall of a shape complementary to the reception seat to nest in operation in said seat and whose central region carries a rotatable tool secured to a shaft passing through said base and adapted to couple with the output shaft of the electrical motor unit, and a first safety device comprising at least one retractably mounted stop adapted to permit coupling the rotatable tool with the output shaft upon retraction of said stop only when the removable bowl is correctly fixed on the base and this base is correctly nested in the reception seat.
2. Description of the Related Art
In known kitchen appliances of this type, the safety devices avoid the possibility of starting the apparatus by a user with the tool carrying base not having the bowl thereon, thereby leaving the tool exposed and hence causing the risk of serious wounding. These safety devices secured to the base are relatively complicated to produce and their employment therefore gives rise to high cost. Moreover, the base being a portion of the kitchen equipment subject to be soiled, its cleaning requires the user to take careful precautions by avoiding any passage of the valve under tap water or into a dish pan to prevent problems of corrosion of the pieces constituting said safety device, thereby to increase the life of the kitchen appliance.
The present invention has for its object to overcome the mentioned drawbacks and to provide a kitchen appliance in which the safety device will be of reliable and economical construction, adapted to mass production and easy to use.
According to the invention, the stop is retractably mounted into the reception seat between an inactive position in which it permits the seating of the base on the reception seat and in which it is retracted by an actuating means secured to the base of the bowl when said bowl is correctly fixed on the base, and an active position in which it projects in the direction of the output shaft and of which a portion comes into engagement with at least one notch formed in the sidewall of the base so as to prevent coupling of the rotatable tool with the output shaft and in which it avoids the actuating means when the bowl is not present or is incorrectly fixed on the base. Thus, thanks to the stop fixed on the reception seat, the first safety device permits in a simple way, whilst guaranteeing the possibility of cleaning the bowl with the base under tap water or in a dish pan, obtaining absolute safety for the user by preventing the coupling of the rotatable tool fixed on the base when the bowl is not present or is incorrectly locked on the base.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the bowl being fixed by rotation on the base, the kitchen appliance comprises a second safety device adapted to prevent the reverse rotation of the bowl on the base when the base, on which the bowl is correctly mounted, is seated correctly in the reception seat.
This second safety device thus permits, after locking the bowl-base assembly on the reception seat, providing a unitary kitchen appliance which has high reliability as well as good handling properties during its use. Moreover, such a safety device preventing the removal of the bowl in bowl-base assembly is corrected fixed on the reception seat, prevents any improper handling by the user, particularly unlocking the bowl from the base after use, which could give rise to serious consequences, namely abrupt opening of the bottom of the bowl and hence burning in the case of a hot preparation contained within the bowl or soiling the kitchen appliance and the working surface on which said kitchen appliance rests.